ATPG Publications

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In this work the author investigates the Neolithic-Calcolithic transition that took place in the first centuries of the V millennium B.C. in Upper Mesopotamia. During this phase, the Ubaid culture, which had led to a progressive hierarchisation within the communities, spread from the southern region of the alluvium to the Jezira area and beyond, provoking instabilitiy on a broad scale and the break up of traditional egalitarian structures of Halaf neolithic groups.

The author analyses these transformations from the point of view of settlement, taking into consideration internal organisation, functional aspects of the buildings, material culture and territorial distributional patterns. This approach is based on the idea that there is a natural relationship between material expression and modes of living, rendering tradition - the ritual repetion of shared beliefs/schemata - the vehicle of social identity.

The main aim of this research is therefore to study and reconstruct a specific ritual behaviour, that expressed in the settlements' internal patterns of organisation, and in the territorial distribution of both Halaf and Ubaid communities between VI and V millennia, showing how it is involved in changes and relationships between different groups in Upper Mesopotamia.